Thanksgiving Dinner

All ready to go!

We had our friends Ross and Amber and their daughter Stella over for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Ross and Amber are from North Dakota originally which just continues my streak of friends and acquaintances from North Dakota.  Given how small the state's population is, I think I could easily play six-degrees-of-separation and hit just about everyone on the census list....?

L-R:  glazed carrots/parsnips, lingonberry compote, cheesy olive bread, sweet potatoes, dressing,
cabbage/apple dish, bundles o'beans, baked corn dish, ham

from the opposite end of the bar

and the dishes in the middle

Ross and Amber brought over cheesy olive bread, a baked corn dish (although technically NOT a "hotdish" because it doesn't have enough ingredients in it!), and a delicious chocolate marbled cheesecake. YUM!  This was in addition to the Kentucky country ham we ordered from Zingerman's back in October (that spent the last month in the nightstand in our guest bedroom until last weekend), sweet potatoes from our garden, my apple/chestnut dressing, a cabbage/apple dish, lingonberry compote, bundles of beans, and buttermilk biscuits.

chocolate marbled cheesecake with oreo crust--it was delicious!

Yeah.  No one left our house hungry!

Lulu got to "be the mommy" a lot to poor Stella...

We had a wonderful time and lingered over cheesecake and coffee while the girls played together.  Snorri even came inside for a bit of post-prandial bunny petting (it sounds dirrrrty, huh?).  And best of all, we had the dishes in the dishwasher and the food put away by 8pm.  Heaven!